AVEDEV

Calculates the mean absolute deviation[1] of the values in a data set.

Syntax:

AVEDEV( list )

Returns the average absolute deviation of the values in the list from their arithmetic mean.

list may be a range of cells, an array, or a comma-separated list of values (which may contain cell references and also ranges of cells as one or more of its elements).

Formula:

AVEDEV = ( i 1n | xix | )  ∕  n

where n is the number of values, xi is the i‑th value, and x is the arithmetic mean of those values.

Example:

AVEDEV(A1:A15)

returns the average deviation of the contents of cells in the range A1:A15 from their arithmetic mean.

Note:

AVEDEV() is implemented using a two-pass approach, first independently computing the mean value, then computing intermediate values using the difference between each value and the mean value. This approach helps avoid many round-off errors and is also employed by Microsoft Excel 2003 and later.

Revisions:

This function was added in Fireworkz 2.00.

  1. Weisstein, Eric W. "Mean Deviation." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/MeanDeviation.html